Mission Soledad

Mission Soledad was nicknamed "The Lonely Mission." It may be the only mission named by one of the Native Californians. An unverifiable myth claims that when Gaspar de Portola first visited the site in 1769 he was greeted by a native woman who gave her name as "Soledad." Whether Portola misunderstood her or whether this woman had, prior to the visit of the first known Spaniard in that area, picked up one word of Spanish has never been sorted out.

The name as a religious representation represents Mary, on the day after Christ's death. Certainly there could not have been a more bereft figure than a mother, the day after her son's crucifixion.

The Eerie Image of Our Lady of Solitude